Shipping-package



(No Model.) 0. L;

SHIPPING PACKAGE. v No. 469,744. 4 Patented Mar. 1, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

CHARLES L. KING, OF MONTAGUE, MICHIGAN.

SHIPPING- PACKAGE.

SPEGIFICATION forming partof Letters Patent No. 469,744, dated March 1, 1892.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES L. KING, a citizen of the United States,.residing at Montague, in the county of Muskegon and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shipping-Packages, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in packages for shipping merchandise which need to be strong, light, and cheap, but are not necessarily very tight; and the objects of my improvements are, first, to provide a strong, neat, light, and cheappackage that can be utilized for another use after it has served as a package for the transport of goods, and, second, to furnish a package that can be nested for shipment in the knockdown and quickly and easily be formed again into a shippingcase. I attain these objects by the formation of the case illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a side view of the completed package as it appears when filled and ready for shipment. Fig. 2 is an end view of the same, showing the hand-holes in the two sections of the case and the means of fastening the two sections together to make a complete case by means of connecting a suitable fastener through these hand-holes. The braciuge stays are also shown in this view. Fig. 3 is a top view of the two halves of the case shown as filled with wooden butter-plates ready to be joined for shipment. ,This view also illustrates the appearance of the case when opened at its point of destination.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts throughout the several views.

My improved case is formed of two similar parts, the bottom and the top, and as these parts are alike it follows that the line of juncture in-the completed case is in its center longitudinally. As one of the objects of my invention is to furnish a case which shall be useful in its knockdown state after it has served the'purpose of a shipping-case, I prefer to form the two halves of the case in such a form that they will be useful as delivery baskets by grocers and others, and hence prefer to form them in the manner here de-, scribed-to wit, for the top and bottom halves of the case, which are duplicates of each Application filed September 10J 1891. Serial No. 405,347. (No model.)

other, the baskets A and B are formed as splint or veneer baskets are usually made. The bracing-stays O O are then firmly fastened with tacks, staples, or other devices to the outside of baskets A and B in substantially the position here describedto wit, begin near eachv end of hand-hole D and fasten with tacks between the two top stayhoops of the basket one end of each of the two bracing-stays O 0, then spread apart the stays, so that they reach the outside corners of the basket at the bottom, continuing along the bottom, near the corners, fast-ening as applied, and to the other end in the same manner and position as the first end. This application of the bracing-stays brings their ends close together at the rim of the baskets, and as they diverge toward the bottoms they thereby furnish a brace against the collapsing of the ends of the case as a whole should several packages be piled one upon the other.

I prefer to form the baskets smaller at the bottom than at the top, so that they will nest for shipmentand then can be easily taken apart and put together for use to make the complete case. The two separate halves A and B, after being filled with the goods they are to carry, are united together at their top edges, in which position they are fastened by looping the metal strip E around the top rims of the baskets through the hand-holes D D, where it is fastened in place by the tack F or other similar device.

My improved package is especially adapted to the shipment of wooden butter-plates, as such grocerymen and others as usually buy and use butter-plates of this sort are also users of delivery-baskets of the kind here described. As such baskets are bulky to ship, they are quite expensive when they reach the consumer or user. My improved case is especially designed to be made by the maker of veener butter-plates, and can be made as cheaply, or nearly so, as the common crate now in use for the shipment of such butterplates,and which has no value after use, and as the case is filled with goods in transit the freight charges upon it alone are nominal. I do not wish to limit myself to the use of my improved case for the shipment of wooden butter-plates alone. Other similar articles might be carried by it safely and well, as it is light, strong, and cheap, and by being made, as here described, so that the separate halves will nest it can be shipped as are packingboxes in the knockdown and at its place of destination quickly assembled as a shipping-case.

I am aware that baskets similarin some respects to those I here show and describe, are old, and I do not claim them, broadly; but I do not know nor do I believe that prior to my invention two baskets combined with each other, each provided with the bracing-stays O O, the hand-holds D D, and fasteners E E, have ever been known or used.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, in a shipping-case, of the baskets AA, each provided with the bracing-stays O C, severally fastened at one end near each end of the hand-hole D, thence spread apart toward the outside corners of the basket at the'bottom,eontinuing along the bottom of the basket and up the other end in like manner as at the end where first applied,

said bracing-stays being fastened to the basket at intervals along their length, the handholes D D, and a fastening device for uniting the two baskets together at the hand-holes, thereby forming a shipping-case, substantially as described.

2. The combination, in a shipping-case, of the baskets A A, each of which is suificiently smaller at the bottom than the top to enable them to be nested and each provided with the bracing-stays G O, severallyfastened at one end near each end of the hand-hole D, thence spread apart toward the outside corners of the basket at the bottom, continuing along the bottom of the basket and up theother end in like manner as at the end where first applied, said bracing-stays being fastened to the basket at intervals along their length, the hand-holes D D, and a fastening device for uniting the two baskets together at the hand-holes, thereby forming a shipping-.case, substantially as shown.

CHARLES L. KING.

Witnesses:

A. T. LINDERMAN, B. A. LINDERMAN. 

